Brooklyn: Here Are Your New and Improved Bike Paths

It’s kind of warm outside! It is spring! In short: Time to start biking as often as you possibly can.

This week, the DOT released its 2016 Bike Map. It includes fifteen brand new miles of protected cycling paths, and 70 in sum that have been upgraded. Here in Brooklyn, there are two new additions: The Marine Park Connector—linking Avenue U to Flatbush Avenue—and a long-awaited protected lane connecting Greenpoint, via the Pulaski Bridge, to Long Island City and the great beyond aka Queens.

As reported by DNAinfo, that latter inter-borough lane has been delayed for more than a year, largely due to a long contracting process. But given that the population has grown especially rapidly in that part of Greenpoint and Long Island City in the past couple of years—and will only continue to do so as the Greenpoint waterfront towers are inhabited—this will be at least one small relief to increased traffic flows.

The Pulaski path is set to be fenced-in and nine feet wide. There is, however, still no official date for when it will be open to traffic—just a promise that it will happen in 2016.

As the DOT says on its site, you may pick up your own updated 2016 Bike Map at bicycle shops, libraries, and schools, by calling 311, or by downloading the pdf here.